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COLD HARBOUR, CROYDON.

former presence of heathen worship; viz., Woden, Col Arbour, and Halige.[1]

Some writers have contended that "Cold Harbour" merely means a very cold place, or harbour against the cold in the exposed places in which they are often found. There are several objections to this explanation, such as that the name occurs in sheltered situations, as in "Cold Herberge" in London, and that the name is too common, too widely dispersed throughout the island, and that it is found even on the continent. A writer in the Gentleman's Magazine for May 1856 has perhaps said all that can be urged in favour of the literal interpretation.

But that it is an error to conclude that "Cold Harbours" are always in cold or exposed situations, was not long since remarked by Mr. Benjamin Williams, F.S.A., in a letter read before the Antiquarian Society, January 16, 1851, in further illustration of the etymology of Cold Herbergh or Harbour. In corroboration of this, he observes, that according to Ihre's Dictionarium Suio-Gothicum there is, or rather was, the Swedish word kol signifying fire, the very opposite of cool; in that sense, however, there are various dialects of Germany and the North in which the word kol is used as denoting heat.

The name of "Cold Herberghe," I find, is known in Germany. In an ancient itinerary between Aix-la- Chapelle and Treves (starting from the former place), the name thus occurs:—

  1. The Druid order of priesthood was divided into three essential classes:—viz., the Bardd Braint, peculiarly the ruling order; Derwidd (hence our word Druid), or religious functionary; and the Ovydd, or literary and scientific order. The principal doctrines of the order were—the belief in one God, the creator and governor of the universe, universal peace and good will.—(Owen's Llywarch Hen, quoted by Davis in his Derbyshire, p. 583.)